Horror Movie Reviews

More Details... Price: $19.95

Title: Waxworks (2002) Starring: Emil Jannings, Conrad Veidt, Werner Krauss, William Dieterle, and Georg John Director: Array Rating: NR (Not Rated) Runtime: 83 minutes Avg. Score: 4 Submit Comment Hits: 19

Review of Waxworks

[ Back to Homepage | Back to Horror Movie Reviews Index ]

HellHorror.com not responsible for reviews/comments and they may be removed at any time.

Submit Comment

Comments for Waxworks

• Posted on 2008-04-28
  Great pedigree but not entirely successful
  
  1924's Waxworks is one of those films whose credits are more impressive than it's achievements. Directed by The Man Who Laughs' Paul Leni and starring Emil Jannings, Conrad Veidt and Dr Caligari himself, Werner Krauss, it's an early anthology film linking three inhabitants of a fairground chamber of horrors as future director William Dieterle's writer is hired to come up with publicity stories. The first, an Arabian Nights tale in which a baker attempts to steal Caliph Haroun Al-Raschid's wishing ring while, unknown to him, the Caliph is romancing his wife is a horribly drawn out affair that offers plenty of opportunities for Jannings to ham it away but does nothing to justify his comical character's reputation as one of the most evil men in history. Things improve immensely in the second story, largely because of an extraordinarily intense performance by Veidt, utterly convincing as an increasingly paranoid Ivan the Terrible: in one remarkable scene he seems to completely lose himself in an orgasm as he watches one of his victims die. Unfortunately Krauss' Spring Heeled Jack is thrown away in a brief and badly executed nightmare coda, ending the film on a disappointing note. It's definitely worth watching for Veidt's sequence, but it's a shame it's sandwiched between two clunkers. The restoration by the Cineteca del Commune di Bologna is good but the blue and orange tints on Kino's DVD are so extreme you might want to turn the color way down to stop them bleeding out the detail altogether.
  
  Also included on the DVD is the surprisingly enjoyable Rebus Film Number 1, a 1926 film crossword directed by Leni that's an intriguing kaleidoscope of rapidly edited footage serving as clues interspersed with brief animations, and an extract from Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad which is supposed to show the influence of Waxworks on the film's design but actually serves to disprove it! (If anything, Leni's film seems much more of an influence on Stephen Grimes production design for Krull.
  Score: 3
• Posted on 2006-11-15
  Interesting slice of Expressionism
  
  While this film might not be as famous or top-notch as other examples of German Expressionism, such as 'Metropolis' (1927) or 'The Golem' (1920), it is an interesting entry into the genre nevertheless, and has a number of great Expressionist sets, lighting, and moods. Things start happening when a young writer answers an ad in the paper, placed by a man seeking someone to tell the stories of three of the wax dummies in a wax museum he and his pretty daughter have at an amusement park. Of course, the young couple in each of the three stories are played by the writer and the young woman. It has an episodic structure much like that used in the early Fritz Lang film 'Destiny' (1921).
  
  First off is the story of Caliph Hanoun al-Raschid (Emil Jannings) and how he came to lose his arm. Zarah, the wife of Assad the baker, has been flirting with a lot of customers, among them the Grand Vizier. The Caliph takes it upon himself to go and see her after the Vizier tells her all about her beauty, and is able to worm his way into her house at night because Assad, after quarreling with his wife, has snuck off to the palace, vowing to prove his manliness by stealing the Caliph's magickal wishing ring. Each of the three stories uses Expressionism in a different way, and here it is manifested in the great staircases and buildings that we see as the palace guards are pursuing Assad through the streets of Baghdad at night. This is probably the best-developed and most interesting of the three tales, and it's certainly the most light-hearted.
  
  Second comes a story about Tsar Ivan IV (whom most Westerners know as "Ivan the Terrible," even though his title, Grozniy, really translates as something like "Awe-Inspiring"), and the Expressionism here is in the lighting and the dark mood. The Tsar (played by Conrad Veigt) gets a sadistic delight out of watching people agonise through their last moments in his torture chamber and in selecting victims who are to be poisoned by one of his underlings. The chemist who carries out these cruel orders, however, is tipped off to the fact that for all he knows, he might be next, so he writes the Tsar's name on an hour glass (when the last sand falls, the victim is supposed to die). Before the Tsar can find out about this clever revenge, however, he goes with a nobleman to the wedding of his daughter, and murders the man before they are to disembark from their carriage and join the wedding party. He then manages to steal the bride for himself and has her new husband kidnapped and taken to the torture chamber. Even though my area of special expertise in the field of history is Russian history, and Ivan IV is one of my favorite tsars, this story just didn't seem as interesting to me as the others. Ivan is just too one-dimensionally evil and twisted, in comparison to the more-developed and interesting Caliph in the first story. The real Ivan also started out as a liberal enlightened reformer and only went off the deep end after the love of his life, his first wife Anastasiya, was poisoned by a boyar; his character in this film would have been more complex and noteworthy had he had that same kind of development, instead of just starting out with the heart of darkness and only getting crazier and more evil, with no explanation for why he got that way.
  
  The third story only lasts for maybe 5 minutes, but it's the most visually arresting and memorable. By this point the young writer is having trouble staying awake, and has a nightmare that the third dummy, a combination of Jack the Ripper and Spring-Heeled Jack (played by Werner Krauss), is chasing him and the young lady through the fairgrounds. After he awakes, he finds out that she had the exact same nightmare. It's a shame this story is so very short, since it had great potential to be the best of all of the episodes, and the most compelling, both visually and thematically. Supposedly a fourth episode was planned, about Rinaldo Rinaldi, but the production company ran out of money.
  
  There are two extras--a clip from Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.'s 'The Thief of Bagdad' (1924), a film which was inspired by 'Waxworks,' and a cute short subject from 1925, also directed by Paul Leni, 'Rebus Film Number 1,' an animated crossword puzzle that gives the viewer the puzzle, the clues, hints at the answers, and finally the solution to the puzzle.
  
  This is an important film for those who are interested in German Expressionism, although given the episodic structure, it can seem a bit uneven, in comparison to other Expressionist films that have just one coherent narrative storyline. And though it has been billed as a horror film, only the third episode could really be classified in the horror genre. The first episode does have some heavy moments but is overall lighthearted, and the second episode is more dark, disturbing, and depressing than horrifying or nightmare-inducing. It's an interesting film, but not one that could really be classified as an ideal first silent.
  Score: 4
• Posted on 2006-07-10
  Torture, dread and death -- and some ironic good humor -- in this stylish Paul Leni film
  
  Waxworks is an anthology film directed with great German expressionism flair by Paul Leni. The horror element is liberally mixed with irony, humor and amazing escapes. The three stories, one quite short, start out with a young man (Wilhelm Dieterle) answering an ad: "Wanted - An imaginative writer for publicity work in a waxworks exhibition." The exhibition is a sideshow at a carnival, and the waxworks are life-size figures of some legendary human monsters. There's Harun al Raschid, Caliph of Bagdad (Emil Jannings), Ivan the Terrible (Conrad Veidt) and Spring-Heeled Jack -- no, not Jack the Ripper -- (Werner Krauss). The daughter (Olga Belajeff) of the waxworks creator and the young man are attracted to each other. He picks up a pen and begins writing his stories while she watches enraptured.
  
  Harun al Raschid was a ruler who "hated monotony, so he had a different wife for every day in the year." He's a corpulent, spoiled and lascivious potentate played with a fierce mustache, leering eyes and wandering hands by Jannings. When he becomes entranced by the baker's wife (Belajeff), she inspires the baker (Dieterle) to prove his worth by stealing the caliph's wishing ring. After attempted caresses ("Don't let that bother you, my nightingale," the caliph tells the baker's wife when her gown becomes disarranged, "your lack of clothes doesn't bother me in the least."), barred doors, leaping escapes, a severed arm and the baker's oven used as a hiding place, all comes to a close with a happy and ironic ending.
  
  Ivan the Terrible was a "blood-crazed monster on the throne, who turned cities into cemeteries. His crown was a tiara of mouldering bones, his scepter an axe." He "loved to gloat over the dying agonies of his poisoned victims," using an hourglass to measure out their last minutes. This story is genuinely unnerving. The sight of Veidt as Ivan, followed by his astrologer, stalking down the passage to the torture chambers in a long white gown, bent at the waist, elbows back and hands on his hips, each step measured, is something to see. This ending is ironic and disturbing.
  
  Spring Heeled Jack -- "the notorious character -- pounced suddenly and silently upon his victims." Our writer has finished his first two stories. The young girl has fallen asleep. He looks at the waxworks figure of Jack, starts to write but falls asleep. Or is he. Suddenly the girl is holding him, telling him Jack had tried to kill them. They flee into the carnival with Jack after them, a frightening figure in an overcoat, a long scarf around his neck, a hat set at a jaunty angle on his head and a knife in his hand. Is this a dream or reality? Well, watch the movie, but don't blink. This sequence is over in just two or three minutes.
  
  Probably the greatest pleasure of the movie is its look. In Waxworks, there's not a straight line or a right angle to be seen. Bagdad is an odd wonderland of domes and crooked ladders, veils and shadows. Anything solid seems to have been made out of rough clay. The staircases in the palace look like the ribcage of some exotic creature. The Kremlin looks to be a cross between a dark, crazed fantasy and a grotesque stage set. The carnival grounds are a fantasm of double exposures, shadowy lighting effects and fog. This is an unusual and entertaining film, with two over-the-top yet skilled performances by Jannings and Veidt, and with all the strange visuals you could hope for in a film by Paul Leni.
  
  If you like anthology films which feature stylish dread, watch Dead of Night, a British film from 1945. There are stories in the film that will make you think twice about looking in mirrors, watching a ventriloquist's act or staying with friends for the weekend.
  
  The Kino presentation of the restored Waxworks has a very good DVD transfer, chapter stops for each sequence and an unobtrusive piano accompaniment composed and played by Jon Mirsalis. There are a couple of minor extras.
  Score: 4
• Posted on 2005-05-11
  Uneven vignettes
  
  "Waxworks" continues my expolration into German Silent-era impressionist movies. "Waxworks" is about young poet who is hired by a carnival wax museum owner to write some stories concerning three wax figures. The first figure is a Saltan from Arabia, and the story he writes is a funny "1001 Arabian Nights" like tale about a baker who tries to impress his wife by stealing the Sultan's jewelry. The second is a much darker psychological thriller concerning the mad reign of Ivan the Terrible (although I seriously doubt his rule was as bad insane as id depicted here). In it Ivan is an utter psychopath who rules through fear and terror. He is accidently poisoned by his own alchamist, and then tries to cheat death by playing with an hour glass he previously used to torment his victims with. The last segement is about Jack the Ripper, and how he assalts the poet and the wax museum owner's daughter; all that turns out to be a bad dream. The movie starts out great, but then the quality drops in each subsequent story. The Sultan story was fun and funny with humourous characters and a rather upbeat and Shakespear ending (his comedies, anyway; think "A Midsummer's Night's Dream"). The Ivan story is alright, but a little bland; Good sets and atmosphere is hurt by no explaination of what made Ivan so bad. And more torture scenes wouldn't have hurt. Ivan ranting and raving and just acting like a spoiled brat is not enough. And the last short (very short) story is just bad. One thing is that Spring Hill Jack and Jack the Ripper are two different killers. Two is that it is all a nightmare, which is a plot device I can not stand. And three, it is only three minutes long, where the other two stories got almost 45 minutes each. That really wasn't fair to the killer's story. But it is alright, all in all. The color tenting was ok, and the music that was conducted was also pretty good. One last thing; "Waxworks" is not a horror movie, exactly. It is more like "The Twilight Zone" if anything, except there are no lessons learned.
  Score: 3
• Posted on 2005-04-18
  Waxworks
  
  
  
  A man answers an ad asking for an `imaginative writer.' The waxwork displays in a fair sideshow need some interesting words thrown their way. Dashing young Poet (William Dieterle) answers the ads, and in the course of a night tells the tale of Harun-al-Raschid (Emil Jannings), the caliph of Baghdad, Ivan the Terrible (Conrad Veidt), and later dreams a nasty dream about Spring Heeled Jack (Werner Krauss, as Jack the Ripper), all the while throwing an evening's worth of sighs at pretty young Zarah (Olga Belajeff).
  WAXWORKS (Das Wachsfigurenkabinett) is a 1924 German silent movie directed by Paul Leni. The movie is divided into three episodes. Sources say a fourth was planned but the production ran out of money. The first episode asks the question When a Grand Vizier flirts with a baker's wife, what does the baker do? Dieterle and Belajeff play the young and much in love married couple, and Dieterle answers the question by resolving to steal the Caliph's `wishing ring.' Episode two again has Dieterle and Belajeff playing a young couple much in love, we join them on their wedding day, along with the mad Ivan the Terrible, a cruel sadist who derives particular pleasure out of poisoning someone and watching them squirm while the sand in over sized hour glasses time out the last moments of their lives. The third episode finds Spring Heeled Jack chasing the Poet through the fair.
  WAXWORKS is an impressive looking movie. Leni also handled the Art Direction and the sets are a fantastical melange of weird rounded shapes and cantered angles. The first episode, which comprises nearly half the movie's running time, is imaginative and tight. The Ivan episode drags on more than a bit, slowed down considerably by Veidt's crawling approach to screen acting. He takes forever to complete a gesture. The short Spring Heeled Jack episode seems tacked on, an expedient for a bankrupt production. It's filled with double and triple exposures and works better than it has any right to. After the long Caliph story I thought WAXWORKS lost drive and focus, and found myself steadily losing interest as the movie played itself out.
  The dvd's extras features a clip from Douglas Fairbanks' Thief of Baghdad, which WAXWORKS inspired. Also included is the playful REBUS 1, a fifteen-minute or so short by Paul Leni. REBUS 1 is simply a seven-word crossword puzzle that uses filmed images, traditional and stop-action animation to solve the puzzle. It's light-hearted and frothy and, most important, translated into English.
  
  
  Score: 3